Bernarda Albas Haus

The opera opens with the maid La Poncia complaining about her tyrannical mistress, Bernarda, who is returning with her five daughters from the funeral of her second husband. She orders eight years of sorrow, during which her daughters have to live isolated from society. A young man, Pepe, wants to marry Angustias, Bernarda’s daughter from her first marriage. 
However, La Poncia has observed that Pepe not only visits his bride Angustias at her window but also Adela, the youngest of the five sisters. When Angustias realises that the picture of Pepe which she had kept under her pillow is missing, Bernarda orders a thorough search and the picture is finally found in Martirio’s room. The atmosphere in the house is unbearably tense. Martirio confesses that she is also in love with Pepe; she betrays Adela to Bernarda. Bernarda drives Pepe out of the barn, where he was waiting for Adela, with a rifle shot. At Bernarda’s command everybody in the house remains silent for ever.

"Aribert Reimann has fully succeeded in realising Lorca’s disturbing play as powerful music theatre, with a superlative score of unremitting clarity and force. This piece leaves no member of its audience unmoved." (Peter Hagmann, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 1 November, 2000)